


Fractures

by flightless_soren



Category: Show By Rock!! - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 14:23:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12706782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightless_soren/pseuds/flightless_soren
Summary: Rom wasn't the only one hurt that night.





	Fractures

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back from watching the newest SB69 musical and am ass deep in Adaeve hell.

When Shu had wordlessly left the stage, Rom running after him, Eve had been the only one left to clean up the mess they made behind. The events coordinator had stopped him before he could barge after his friends, forcing him to do the last of the forgotten contract work that Rom hadn’t managed to finish himself - everyone had been so stressed leading up to this gig, Shu running on no sleep and energy drinks, and Rom simply keeping them all together on sheer willpower alone.

Somewhere along the way, the thread holding the four of them together had waned and finally snapped.

It takes _far_ too long for Eve’s liking - in fact Eve is rather impressed he manages to keep it together long enough to concentrate on anything at all. So by the time he finishes up in the coordinators office, the stage hands have already pulled down their set, half packed away in Rom’s van which lies unmoving in the empty parking lot. As he stands outside in the pouring rain, Eve would have missed the man entirely if he hadn’t spotted the slow twitching of a slender leopard’s tail coming from the rear of the parked vehicle.

Slowly, he approaches, almost feeling like it’s a scene he shouldn’t be invading on.

“Rom?”

Barely glancing his way, Rom simply leans against the side of his banged up van, gaze fixed off to a point Eve can’t really follow. His bandages half fall off his wrist, completely drenched. “. . . where is he? Where is, Shu?” he doesn’t mean to sound so harsh, but his voice comes out in a low rasp, already half knowing, half fearing, the answer before it can be confirmed.  

“Not coming back.”

Shit.

He hates being right all the time.

Eve had noticed, perhaps in the last month or so, Shu becoming so distance from everyone it was a surprised he hadn’t up and left sooner. He could tell the man had been unhappy for a long, long time now. With himself, with Amatelast, or perhaps it had been something else entirely. Either way, it would be something he would never know now.

Eve half turns, feeling like there’s no point continuing with the conversation from that point on. Rom just. He looks so utterly devastated. The rain washing away his stage make up, leaving behind something bare and raw, and far to honest for Eve’s liking. It wasn’t that Rom had just been a pillar for Shu. He had been the thing keeping them all up. And perhaps that had been wrong of them, too much for one man to shoulder alone. But Eve just can’t stand to look at him right now, with his dead blue eyes and vacant expression, because that isn’t the man he knows.

It’s too painful.

As he makes to leave, he pauses as Rom calls out once more. “Eve?”

Not trusting himself to speak, he simply moves his head to show he’s listening.

“We’re over now.”

A sharp pain blooms from the inside of his chest, and Eve grips and pushes at it to try and let himself breathe a little better. “Honestly,” he mutters out furiously, vision blurring as hot tears form and start mixing with the rain. It takes everything in him to not sob out loud. “Don’t tell me something I already know.”

Covering his mouth, he quickly walks away, letting the venue doors bang on its hinges as he blindly makes his way through the darkness of the backstage corridors. From the wings, he sees the stage lights are all turned off, all that is left behind is the gentle haze from the smoke machines; the smell of booze and cigarettes. The audience, now long gone.

His true concern is where Adam went.

Wondering off stage in a stunned daze, Eve’s arm had been grabbed before he could go to his friend. Neither of them had understood what was happening at the time, only that half their band had run off and something was wrong. Had been wrong for a long time now.

As he stands there shivering in the darkness, Eve grows enough common sense to remove his soaking wet outer lays, stripping down to his mostly dry tank top underneath. Nothing much can be done about his long wet hair, asides from wringing it out slightly. Those normal actions calm him a little, tears and breathing a little more under control as he thinks over what to do. Sniffing and scrubbing at his dripping nose, he digs around for his cellphone, flipping it open and decides the best thing to do is try calling Adam.

It feels unlikely he would have left the venue. Even less likely he’ll pick up, but the buzzing of his device is the only sound Eve needs to find him.

As he aimlessly wanders around backstage, his hopes dry up the longer his phone rings; the quicker his foot falls become.

Until it hits him. The most obvious place Adam would run to for comfort.

Snapping his phone shut, he makes his way quickly to the dressing rooms at the very back of the venue. It may have been a shithole of a bar, but the place still came with places to change and put makeup on backstage. This was Midicity after all, a city run on music. No matter the place, it would always come with a stage and back rooms for performers.

All the lights are off, Eve simply finding his way by the dim glowing of the exit signs and emergency lighting. The venue hasn’t entirely shut down, the manager is still around, and Eve knows he doesn’t officially have to get lost until three am. That was how long they’d hired it out for, after all. It’s barely gone midnight, the abrupt ending of their concert disrupting the entire flow of the bar's crowd.

Finding the room Shu had used as a makeshift dressing room, Eve gingerly pushes the door open. He would have assumed the room deserted, if there wasn’t a small shuffle of movement that breaks out the moment he walks in. “Adam?”

Half expecting to also be ignored here, at last there comes a faint reply. “I’m here.”

God, he sounds awful.

Voice hollow and hoarse, like he’s been crying for days, not just a few lonely hours.

Even with the door open and letting in the grungy light - he sees a few chairs and a giant mirror shoved up against one wall that Shu must have used - it's still far too dark for Eve’s weak eyes to pick out where he is. Feeling mean to do so, but having to, Eve flips his phone back open and uses the small glowing screen to search around. Finally, he finds the small myumon, trapped up against a table and the wall, clearly having crammed himself there to try and feel safe in a tight space. He shies away when the light shines in his direction.

“Oh god, Adam,” Eve tries to keep his voice level, having seen enough to know that he looks just a bad a mess as he sounds. There’s no logical way Adam knows what has just happened. But he’s not _stupid_. They’d all noticed the signs Shu had been giving off. He clearly _knows_. It’s why he’s being affected so badly by it. Switching off his phone to give him a sense of privacy, he crouches to where he’s hidden himself away. “Won’t you come out?”

He hears a small sniff, and does his best to stop his eyes overflowing at the tiny noise. Adam never cries. He’s known Adam from when he barely came up to his chest, a kid bursting with energy and noise, who would rather pick a fight with you over getting to know you. In all that time, he’s never known him to break down over something. The first time he’d failed a huge test, simply shaking his head and saying he’d work harder next time. Rom losing his temper with them both that one time in the music room, snapping at them to stop giving Shu ideas about forming a band after high school. Adam shouting right back that he didn’t know what Shu wanted. When Amatelast’s first ever gig had been such a disaster, barely twenty people showing up, and Shu had simply burst into tears off stage - Adam had grabbed him around the shoulders and said _next time will be better_ clearing up his running nose and making him smile.

This is awful, Eve realises. Those memories feel so hollow now.

“Adam?” when he still doesn’t make a move, Eve reaches out to gently touch his arm, feeling just how icy cold his entire body has become in such a short amount of time. Eve had been out in the freezing rain, but his body temperature is still running high with all the frantic searching he’d been doing from before. “Please let me see you.”

Maybe it’s the way he begs, or perhaps wanting to seek out body warmth and more comfort, but at last his friend uncurls himself from the wall, and shakily crawls out. Everything is still in place. From his leather jacket and crop top, to the hundreds of beads swinging off his waist. He hasn’t bothered to change from his stage costume, Eve’s eyes at last seeing enough to make out more than dark shapes. Adam crawls right into his lap, desperately putting his arms around him and silently asking for a hug in return. The innocent gesture almost breaks Eve’s heart.

As he wraps his arms around him, sometimes Eve forgets just how small and fragile he is under his bulky outfit. Sometimes it scares Eve that he could spread his hands across his bare stomach and back, and manage to make his finger touch from the other side. Such a skinny little thing. Shivering against his chest, Eve starts to rub up and down his back, trying to generate some kind of warmth in his small frame.

“Where did Shu go?”

Eve really did not want him to ask that right now. He knows he can’t avoid it forever.

“He’s gone.”

Eve is not a strong person. He isn’t like Rom, people didn’t go to Eve, looking for reassurance. As he admits that, he hears his own voice break over the truth Adam won’t want to hear, shutting his eyes in an attempt to not let his tears out.

“No. . . _no_.”

He reacts violently.

He had been in denial before his fears had been confirmed. 

Eve struggles to hold on to him.

He doesn’t hit Eve, but he thrashes, clearly wanting out so he can project his emotions against something. Deciding to just let the man go, to let him get it all out, Adam staggers up once he’s been freed. He wobbles unsteadily on his feet for a moment, Eve half rising to catch him, before he lashes out. Eve cringes as one of the flimsy fold back chairs go flying. With another few thumps and bangs, he figures he’s worn himself out until there’s a terrible shattering sound mixing together with Adam’s screams.

“ADAM STOP!”

There are shards of glass everywhere. Eve hears them crunching under his boots as he blindly grabs for Adam, holding him back as he cries out. His right hand slips in Eve’s grip as blood runs down. “Stop, _stop,”_ Eve gasps out desperately, panicking at how thick the air smells of his spilt blood, fighting against Adam as he continues to strain against him. “You’re going to end up killing yourself!”

“This wasn’t how it was meant to go!” Adam screeches. “He wasn’t meant to leave, how could he leave me?!”

Those words hurt more than Rom’s ever could.

Like he’s been kicked in the stomach, Eve’s grip slackens entirely, and Adam shoves him away, bloodied hands reaching for the closest chair he can find, before throwing it through what little remains of the broken mirror. It cracks under the tremendous pressure, falling off the wall and shattering all around the man who barely flinches at the impact.

Eve isn’t so much as scared of being around Adam while he acts this way, than he is for his fragile state of mind.

As it slowly dawns on him to what has just happened - Shu's rejection, his violent out burst - his face tips up a little as he starts to cry out in anguish. It’s awful to listen to. The sound of someone’s heart which has just been fractured in half.

Falling to his knees, Adam barely grunts as his knees slice open on the glass, his hands frantically going to his face and hair, starting to pull and twist at his dyed hair. A terrible wailing noise starts up in his throat, like a wounded animal that’s been driven into a corner - of Adam realising the extent of the damage he’s done and what Shu has done _to him_. Just as soon as his anger dies, sorrow takes it’s place. Eve can barely make out his words, broken french tumbling in together and making him sound half mad.

Eve wants nothing better than to grab him and hold him close, to tuck him away and shield him from the grim reality of everything. To reassure him everything will be alright. When really. He knows it’ll never be alright again.

“. . . what am I meant to do?”

“W-what?” feeling like he’s misheard him, Eve quietly speaks up.

“Eve,” Adam turns slightly, large red eyes fixed on his own, thick tears spilling from them and miserably dripping down his chin as his emotions overflow. “Help me.”

At a loss for what he really needs, Eve carefully moves around the glass to go to his side, picking him up and easily carrying him in his arms. “I’m here now,” he murmurs in reassurance, letting Adam wrap his arms around his shoulders and sob into his neck. Deciding that staying in this room is a bad idea, he shuts the door to leave the destruction behind, finding another room where he can turn the lights on. Half covered in blood, Adam refuses to let go of Eve so he can check the extent of the damage, who’s mostly worried about the knuckles of his hands of where he’d punched the mirror so forcefully.

As Eve sits on the floor with Adam right back in his lap, he tries again.

“Adam, I need to make sure your hands are okay.”

“I don’t want you to leave.”

Of course he would be thinking that.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m just going to look at your hands.”

As gently as he can, Eve slowly unclasps Adam’s hands from around his neck, making him pull back in his arms so he can talk to him face to face. Although they are extremely blood shot, his eyes appear more focused than before, tears still clinging to his lashes and looking far to vulnerable than Eve is used to. It’s then he notices that his mask is still fixed firmly in place, covering up his nose and mouth. He hadn’t even noticed while trapped in the darkness. “What are you doing, silly,” he smiles a little. “You won’t be able to breath with that thing on.”

Using one hand, he unclasped the leather mask from behind his ears, easing it off his face and noticing how red the bridge of his nose is from all the chafing. With his thumb, he softly rubs at the spot, trying to ease away the pain. He notices Adam’s eyes start to wobble at the innocent action.

“Eve.”

Brushing away the new tears that fall down his cheeks, he barely glances down as Adam winds his injured fingers back into his top, shifting himself a little to where Eve assumes he’ll tuck himself back away into his neck.

The kiss surprises him.

Eve jerks back in response, but as soon as he gets out of range, Adam grabs his face with both of his hands, leaning back up to kiss him again. There’s no particular emotion behind the action, just pure desperation. Really, that’s what hurts the most.

His lips are as cold as ice.

“Adam-”

“Eve, please, _please_ don’t leave me,” Adam begs deliriously.

“You don’t need to _kiss me_ for that.”

For so many years now, he’s longed for Adam. A kiss from him is something he should _want_. But not like this. Not when Shu has just crushed his heart so severely, causing him to blindly turn to the next best thing that will give him comfort.

“But I don’t know how else to make you stay,” he whimpers, his voice causing Eve’s heart to break all over again.

He strokes Adam’s face, pushing his fringe out of his eye and tucking the strands behind his ear as he continues to trail his fingers soothingly up and down; until Adam’s eyes flutter shut as exhaustion takes hold. He leans down to press a kiss against his face. “I’m not going to leave you, ever.”


End file.
